HIS 3308 EARLY LATINOS IN THE US AND EARLY MIGRATION

JUAN FELIPE HERRERA

First Latino US Poet Laureate

Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera Announces His Project, La Casa de Colores,

Project Complements His Year of Public Programs in the Capital

In his first official appearance as the 21st Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Juan Felipe Herrera announced today at the Library of Congress National Book Festival the official project of his laureateship, La Casa de Colores—including an invitation to Americans to contribute a verse to an "epic poem" about the American experience.

The poem, titled "La Familia," will unfold monthly, with a new theme each month about an aspect of American life, values or culture. Herrera will compile the contributions and announce the next theme on the Poetry and Literature Center’s blog. A word cloud illustrating the responses will be posted to provide a visual snapshot of the language contributors used to articulate the themes.

La Casa de Colores also will include a monthly feature on resources at the Library of Congress. "El Jardín," a feature that includes videos, poems and blog posts, will show Herrera interacting with and responding to select items throughout the Library.

According to Herrera, "La Casa de Colores, ‘the House of Colors,’ is a house for all voices. In this house we will feed the hearth and heart of our communities with creativity and imagination. And we will stand together in times of struggle and joy."

A. MEXICAN MIGRATION

Mexican diaspora at the heart of US Latino heritage

July 2009, Mexican Americans 10.3% of US' population

Over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry

Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos

US is second largest Mexican community in the world

Comprises nearly 22% of the entire Mexican origin population

2005 16.364 million undocumented Mexicans in US

As of 2008 there were approximately 7,000,000 living in the US

The US share is over 28% of the world's people of Mexican origin

Most Mexican Americans are the descendants of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico and/or Europeans, especially Spaniards

TOP SOURCES OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION TO US BY COUNTRY: 1820-1996

All countries: 63,140,227

Germany 7,142,393

Mexico 5,542,625

Italy 5,427,298

U.K. 6,225,701

Ireland 4,778,159

Why do stereotypes accompany

Migrants to a new community?

TOP TEN SENDING COUNTRIES 2012-2013

Country 2012 2013

Mexico 146, 406 135, 028

China 81, 784 71, 798

India 66, 434 68, 458

Philippines 57, 327 54, 446

Dominican R. 41, 566 41, 311

Cuba 32, 820 32, 219

Vietnam 28, 304 27, 101

S. Korea 20, 846 23, 166

Colombia 20, 931 21, 131

Haiti 22, 818 20, 351

B. AN ASIDE: FILIBUSTERING RECORD FLIP-SIDE OF THE COIN

Invasions by US Citizens into Spanish territories and Latin American Republics

1801-1860: 19 cases

William Walker

Mexico 1853

(Republic of Sonora)

Nicaragua 1855, 1858

Honduras 1860

C. MEXICAN MIGRATIONFIRST WAVES FOLLOWED MX-US WAR IN 1840S

By 1850: 80,000 Spanish-speaking people

in the area from S. Texas to California

Late 19thC saw the expansion of railroads, mining, farming in South West

Development made low-cost labor in great demand

PUSH FACTORS IN MID-19TH CENTURY MEXICO

Extension large haciendas, increasing landlessness, legal end to ejido system 1856

President Benito Juarez, Zapotec

Analysis: what is an ejido?

Why would the end of this system mean?

Why would an indigenous president act thus?

EXAMPLE FROM 1855

Corpus Cristi correspondent for the Galveston Weekly News wrote in 1855

“The whole race of Mexicans here is becoming a useless commodity, becoming cheap, dog cheap. Eleven Mexicans, it is stated, have been found along the Nueces, in a hung up condition. Better so than to be left on the ground for the howling lobos to tear in pieces, and then howl the more for the red peppers that burn his insides raw.”

ACTION AGAINST THE MEXICANS

In the 1850s on York Creek near Seguin, Texas, Captain J. H. Callahan of the Rangers led his men against a group of Mexican horse thieves and killed three or four. The following day Callahan offered a ride to a wounded Mexican, only to shoot him as he neared the horse.8 Prior to this Callahan had pursued a band of Indians into Mexico, only to be repelled by a group of Mexicans. In his retreat his men burned the Mexican city of Piedras Negras.

Anti-Mexican feeling was in part encouraged by pre-Civil War belief that the lower class Mexicans were not advantageous to a slave-holding state, and in 1856 Colorado County forbade their presence, followed by Matagorda County and then Uvalde County, which imposed travel restrictions upon Mexicans.

ABUSES AGAINST IMMIGRANTS

Lynching of Mexicans continued into early 1900s, Canales family witnessed one in 1917.

Causes?

By only six years after TX independence,

thirteen Anglos had taken 1.3 million acres in “legal” salves from 358 Mexican landowners.

Abuses were means to disenfranchise Mexicans

from their land

READING

Timothy Henderson, Beyond Borders, Ch. 1 Quiz

Write a paragraph on this chapter… what is Henderson’s main point?

How did the border come to be?

What changes came to Mexico during the Porfiriato?

How did the US Southwest change?

What were the results of the Mexican Revolution for migration?

What caused xenophobia in the US?

What is a wetback?

What is a coyote?

THE KING RANCHES IN SANTA GERTRUDIS

By the time King died, he owned 500,000

acres, employed over 500, his

ranch even contained his own town,

Santa Gertrudis.

“the Stanta Gertrudis ranch house,” recalled former TX ranger George Durham, “was more like an army arsenal inside. In one big room there were eighty stands of Henry repeating rifles and maybe a hundred boxes of shells. Two men stood in the lookout tower day and night, and there was always a man at the ready for each of those rifles.”

Arsenal used to keep new land barons from rustling cattle.

TEXAS RANGERS

Richard King, infamous cattle thief, turned TX Rangers into his own security force: Texas King Rangers

“His neighbors mysteriously vanish whilst his territory extends over entire counties. Fifty cents a head is paid to Mexicans for branding cattle on the plains with the King monogram, and somehow no one’s herds can be induced to increase but those of the future cattle king.”

Reported Corpus Christi World about King in 1878

CLASS DEBATE ON EARLY MEXICAN MIGRATION TO US

Pro and Con Mexican Immigration

Why so controversial?

What were Mexican people in the Southwest supposed to do?

D. LEGACIES

Nueces Strip and northern New Mexico

only regions where Mexicans remained clear majority over Anglos even after annexation.

Language of area derived mostly from Spanish words:

Bronco, buckaroo, burro, mesa, canyon, rodeo, corral, loco, lariat

What is the Cowboy myth ?

COWBOY MYTH FROM HOLLYWOOD?

Lone white Anglo sitting tall in the saddle, with Mexicans of the Old West either bandits or doltish peasants riding donkeys

E. THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION 1910

Refugees from Mx Revolution swelled migration north

First really significant wave Mx immigration

From 1910-1930, 10% of Mexico’s citizenry fled to better future

700,000 fled to the US, walked endless miles north to S. West, CA, TX

Positive impact on US economy

CONCLUSIONS

Early Latinos in the US

SG: Why is it important to review this history?